Thrinle Lhündrub Chökyi Gyeltshen

Chökyi Gyeltshen, painting by Claude-Max Lochu

Thrinle Lhündrub Chökyi Gyeltshen ( Tib . : phrin las lhun grub chos kyi rgyal mtshan ; * February 19, 1938 in Xunhua ( Qinghai Province ); † January 28, 1989 in Xigazê ) received the title Penchen Lama as seventh and is considered the tenth Penchen Lama the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism . He is usually called Chökyi Gyeltshen for short.

Career

Chökyi Gyeltshen was recognized by official representatives of the late Thubten Chökyi Nyima as his reincarnation ( Trülku ) in 1949 . He was enthroned as Penchen Lama in Amdo in the presence of officials from the Chinese government and with the approval of the regional Kuomintang government. The selection of his person took place in competition with the official search commission of the government in Lhasa and should strengthen the anti-communist movement.

Contrary to expectations, Chökyi Gyeltshen supported the Chinese rulers under Mao Zedong after he had unsuccessfully sought help from the counter-revolutionaries so that he could take his traditional seat in Lhasa. In 1950, the Division will on his behalf of the Commander People's Liberation Army from Lanzhou , have a telegram to Mao Zedong with the request sent to "liberate" Tibet. Beijing Radio broadcast its "Appeal to Liberate Tibet".

In 1951, Chökyi Gyeltshen was invited to Beijing for the arrival of the Tibetan delegation that signed the 17-point agreement . It was also used to urge the 14th Dalai Lama to agree to the deal.

In 1952, Chökyi Gyeltshen first met the 14th Dalai Lama in Lhasa . At this meeting he prostrated himself before him and otherwise behaved in every respect according to traditional rules. After about a month's stay, he was brought to Trashilhünpo , the traditional seat of the Penchen Lama , with the consent of the 14th Dalai Lama.

In the fall of 1954, he traveled to Beijing with the 14th Dalai Lama to attend the first meeting of the National People's Congress under Liu Shaoqi and to meet Mao Zedong and other high-ranking politicians of the time.

Also together with the 14th Dalai Lama, he went on a pilgrimage to India in 1956.

After the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India as a result of the Tibet Uprising in 1959, Chökyi Gyeltshen became chairman of the Committee for the Organization of the Tibet Autonomous Region . In 1960 he was elected vice-chairman of the National People's Congress.

Criticism of the Chinese government

In 1962, after a trip through Tibet, he met Zhou Enlai to discuss a petition with him in which he criticized the social conditions in Tibet and the brutal oppression of the Tibetan population during and after the military operation of the People's Liberation Army in Tibet (1950-1951 ) themed. Mao Zedong later called this petition, also known as the 70,000 letter petition , a "poisoned arrow" that the Penchen Lama shot at the Chinese Communist Party .

When Chökyi Gyeltshen publicly stated in 1964 that the Dalai Lama was "his refuge in this and the next life", he was stripped of his political office, labeled an "enemy of the Tibetan people", the party and socialism, brought to Beijing and under house arrest posed. With the beginning of the Cultural Revolution , his situation worsened even more. He was fought, tortured and humiliated by members of the Red Guards . In 1968, Thrinle Lhündrub Chökyi Gyeltshen was sent to Qincheng Prison in Changping , where he remained imprisoned until 1977.

rehabilitation

After his release, Chökyi Gyeltshen was slowly being politically rehabilitated. Mao Zedong was no longer alive and Deng Xiaoping condemned the Cultural Revolution and demanded that economic development should become the main task for the party.

In 1979, Chökyi Gyeltshen married Han Chinese medical student Li Jie in the Great Hall of the People . After their wedding, the two lived on Dong Zhongbu Street in Beijing. In 1980 he became vice-chairman of the National People's Congress again. His daughter, Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo , was born in 1983.

In 1987, Chökyi Gyeltshen again criticized the Chinese government's policy on Tibet. His criticism related to the education policy, the economic development, the settlement policy and the discrimination against Tibetans.

In 1989 he returned to Tibet. The newly renovated stupas of the Penchen Lamas 5-9 to bless, he arrived in Samzhubzê on January 9th of that year . On January 24th, in Xigazê, he declared that Chinese rule in Tibet had brought Tibetans more destruction than welfare.

Four days later, on January 28, 1989, Thrinle Lhündrub Chökyi Gyeltshen died in Trashilhünpo. Heart attack was given as the official cause of death.

Web links

• columbia.edu : The Panchen Lama's Last Speech: Full Text (PDF; 147 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ chos kyi rgyal mtshan
2. ↑ ^{a b} Lin, Hsiao-ting (2010). Modern China's Ethnic Frontiers: A Journey to the West. Taylor & Francis. pp. 116-118
3. ↑ Canada Tibet Committee Reports Letter from the High Commissioner in India to the Canadian Foreign Ministry dated September 5, 1951
4. ^ Case Western Reserve University : cwru.edu: On the Panchen Lama by (the late) WGSurkhang
5. ↑ tibet.ca: Secret Report on 1960s Tibet Published (TIN)
6. ↑ Excerpts from Qincheng: A Twentieth Century Bastille published in Exploration, March 1979 by Wei Jingsheng
7. ↑ studentsforafreetibet.org: Tibetan leader's daughter has eye on politics ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Marie Frail and Benjamin Kang Lim, Reuters August 27th, 2004  
8. ↑ tibetoffice.org: Buddha's Daughter: A Young Tibetan-Chinese Woman ( Memento of the original from June 30, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Isabel Hilton in The New Yorker April 2, 2003 
9. ↑ tibet.com: The Panchen Lama passes on (archive)